Last night the 2016 Oregon Beer Awards were held at Revolution Hall in Portland, Oregon in an auditorium of nearly 800 industry fans and professionals. It was the first ever all in state Oregon beer competition and first time the beers were judged double-blind, and the first time an academy awards style presentation was applied to the awards ceremony and the communities reaction was enthusiastic. It was a great night for Oregon beer and to see everyone together in one place to celebrate our industry.
The Oregon beer industry came out in mass to celebrate the best in Oregon beer in 14 judged beer style categories and 6 non-style beer categories voted on by an academy of industry professionals. The evening started out with droves of industry insiders and fans lining up at the three indoor bars to mingle and watch Ron Gansberg’s Black Lodge band open the night. It was then time for the awards host, Amy Miller of Last Comic Standing, to take the state and do a killer job MC’ing the 2016 awards ceremony.
The awards started out with two well deserved Gold Medals in a row for Widmer Brothers Brewing.
Pilsner/Helles/Kolsch
Gold: Wider Brothers, PDX Pils
Silver: Widmer Brothers, Green and Gold
Bronze: Terminal Gravity, Wallowa Lake Lager
Wheat/Wit/Weizen
Gold: Widmer Brothers, Hefeweizen
Silver: Fort George, Quick Wit
Bronze: Occidental, Hefeweizen
Widmer’s Hefeweizen is often thought of as a common everyday beer that cannot be good because it is so ubiquitous, not so! There is a reason Widmer’s Hefeweizen is the prototypical example of the style of American Hefeweizen. Also their new PDX Pils, found at their gasthaus brewpub in N. Portland earned a Gold and is worth seeking out as well as the Silver medal wining Green & Gold Kolsch.
Fort George, Widmer and Occidental also came home with well deserved medals in the lighter traditional categories that often are overlooked, but take more skill than the heavier categories.
Belgian Beers
Gold: The Commons, Urban Farmhouse Ale
Silver: Mazama, Saison d’Etre
Bronze: Fat Heads, Pimp My Sleigh
Dark Hoppy Beers
Gold: Buoy, Cascadia
Silver: Sunriver, 2nd Anniversary Imperial Red
Bronze: Ecliptic, Orange Giant Barleywine
Experimental Beers
Gold: Breakside, Vienna Coffee Beer
Silver: Breakside, Bon Vivant
Bronze: The Labrewatory, Billy the Squid
Sessionable Hoppy Beers (6% or lower)
Gold: Deschutes Portland, Hoppy Pilsner
Silver: pFriem Family Brewers, Mosaic Pale Ale
Bronze: Sunriver, Rippin NW Ale
A bevvy of beloved and new breweries captured medals in the Belgian, Dark Hoppy, Experimental and Sessionable Hoppy Beer categories. No surprise that The Commons, Breakside, Deschutes and pFriem did well but it also shed a light onto Mazama, Buoy, Fat Head’s Sunriver, and the brand new The Labrewatory.
Best Beer Bar
Belmont Station
Best Bottleshop
Belmont Station
Best Beer Festival
Festival of the Dark Arts
Best New Brewery
Culmination
Best Brewpub Experience
Pfriem Family Brewers
I personally was honored to introduce the non-beer non-judged award categories that were voted on by nearly 240 Academy Voters from across the state. These voters are brewers, homebrewers, bottleshop beer buyers, bartenders, writers and other industry affiliated experts. They nominated and then voted on the winners in 6 different categories. Five of which are posted above. It was a dominate performance by Belmont Station, an unsurprising win from Culmination as Best New Brewery (they also easily won The New School’s Best New Brewery) and pFriem Family Brewers won “Best Brewpub Experience” for the 2nd year in a row.
After a brief intermission for more beers and a set by Ron Gansberg’s Black Lodge band, it was time to present the Lifetime Achievement award, the winner inducted into our new Hall of Fame. Who else could it be but the recently passed away, Oregon beer legend, Fred Eckhardt? After a fitting tribute video that is featured above, Lisa Morrison accepted his beer and lead everyone to raise their glasses and toast Fred.
After that, Willamette Week arts and culture editor Martin Cizmar announced the weekly magazine’s own Top 10 Oregon Beers of the year, which will be revealed in the separate 2016 Oregon Beer Guide that is released today. It was a nice varied list of winners this year.
Willamette Week’s Top 10 Beers of the Year
10. Heater Allen: Roggenbier
9. Fat Head’s: Midnight Moonlight CDA
8. pFriem Family Brewers: Double IPA
7. Lompoc: Bloody Mary Beer
6. Sunriver: Vicious Mosquito IPA
5. Laurelwood: Laurelweizen
4. Oakshire: Cucumber Sour Berliner-Weisse
3. Upright: Coffee-Cardamom Barleywine
2. Block 15: Framboise White
1. Breakside: Fresh Hop Simcoe IPA
Sessionable Hoppy Beers (6% or lower)
Gold: Deschutes Portland, Hoppy Pilsner
Silver: pFriem Family Brewers, Mosaic Pale Ale
Bronze: Sunriver, Rippin NW Ale
Stout or Porter
Gold: Ecliptic Brewing, Capella Porter
Silver: Fat Heads, Battle Axe
Bronze: Arch Rock Brewing Co., He-Man Imperial Stout
Flavored Beers
Gold: Ex Novo, Nevermore
Silver: Three Creeks, TenPine Chocolate Porter
Bronze: Upright, Fatali Four
Fruit & Field Beers
Gold: The Commons, Clarabelle
Silver: Double Mountain, Peche Mode
Bronze: 10 Barrel – Bend, Cucumber Crush
Sour & Wild Beers
Gold: Stickmen, Kissed By Melons
Silver: Cascade, Foudre #1 2013
Bronze: Cascade, Kriek 2014
Barrel-Aged Beers
Gold: Gigantic, Pipewrench
Silver: pFriem, Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout
Bronze: Breakside, The Pathfinder
Strong Hoppy Beers (7.5%+)
Gold: Breakside, Hop Delivery Mechanism Double IPA
Silver: Breakside Brewery, Safe Word Triple IPA
Bronze: pFriem, Double IPA
Classic Styles
Gold: Buoy, Dunkel
Silver: Golden Valley, Atlas Elevator Doppelbock
Bronze: Golden Valley, Red Thistle Ale
The next beer style categories began to develop a winning pattern between pFriem Family Brewers and Breakside as the biggest winners of the night. Still, it was highlighted by other strong contenders and surprising new victors. Fat Head’s won a couple of awards, as did the one year old Buoy Beer Co, Gigantic and The Commons added another Gold to their haul.
It was nice to see Ecliptic Brewing get some much due credit. They won a Gold for Capella Porter, a beer that owner/brewer John Harris compared to Deschutes Black Butte Porter, a beer he also helped create. Ecliptic also won a Bronze for their Orange Giant Barleywine.
Cascade dominated the sour categories with a bronze and silver but was upset by perhaps the most surprising win of the night — a gold for Stickmen Brewery’s Kissed by Melons, a cantaloupe sour. I personally judged this category and can certify it’s quality of both Cascade and an amazing calling card of a beer in Kissed by Melons. WOW.
Breakside had a huge win in both Silver and Gold in the “Strong Hoppy Beers Category” but were followed with a Bronze for pFriem who also picked up a Silver and set the two breweries on a collision course for most award winning breweries of the night.
American IPA
Gold: Breakside, Wanderlust IPA
Silver: 10 Barrel Bend, Joe IPA
Bronze: Golden Valley, Bald Peak IPA
Unsurprisingly the most entries were in the American IPA category, and also not surprisingly Breakside WON the Gold, but not with their flagship IPA but the alternative Wanderlust IPA. 10 Barrel Brewing pulled a Silver with their new popular JOE IPA but I think the Bronze Medal for Golden Valley’s Bald Peak IPA made them one of the breweries to be talked about. Golden Valley quietly won 3 medals from the often overlooked McMinnville, Oregon brewery and a Bronze in the IPA was the most surprising at all. I hope this garners them a second look by beer geeks, perhaps a first look by many, they obviously have earned it.
Brewery of the Year
Pfriem Family Brewers
The final category was chosen by the voting academy for the Brewery of the Year. I thought Breakside might take it but was equally excited to see pFriem Family Brewers take home the award. pFriem has been killing it for a few years now but 2015 was their year, they also won The New School’s Brewery of the Year and this helped solidify in my mind, our 2015 awards being on par with the entire community of experts.
Pick up your copy of the Willamette Week 2016 Beer Guide for all the winners in print, extensive write-ups on 109 Oregon breweries, WW’s Top 10 Beers of the Year, a Beer Fest directory, a guide to bars and bottleshops and much more.
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